Gymnastics, chair ice skating and a hutong walk

The sign for the competiton we visited

Today began with us being picked up by Mr. Tian who is the brother of Jade's gymnastics coach's coach. Confused? Well it got even more confusing later in the day! To put it another way, Jade's gymnastics coach, Tim Lees (I hope you don't mind me naming you Tim!) was coached by the brother of Mr. Tian who picked us up today. Mr. Tian took us to the northern area of Beijing called DiTan or the Temple of the Earth Park where there was to be a gymnastics competition in a gymnasium. We really had no idea what to expect. We were only told that we were going to see the Beijing Team compete. We were also told that this competition was not open to the public so we felt quite privileged. When we entered the gym we saw it full of very young boy gymnasts all dressed in proper gymnastics gear. The boys were aged from 5 to 8 years old and were representing a number of schools in the eastern Beijing area. I have never seen so many young boy gymnasts together! I asked and was told that the boys are in recreational gymnastics programs and that they train for 2 hours each day--ie 12 hours per week (omitting Sunday which is usually a non-training day)! That is a tremendous amount of training by Australian and Western standards for recreational programs. The other surprise is that so many boys do gymnastics. In Australia gymnastics is viewed very much as a girls' sport and boys are encouraged to participate in a variety of team sports. But, of course, this is China where gymnastics has a fairly high profile.

A view of the gymnasium

One of the higher scorers on parallel bars

Having been to a few gymnastics competitions in Australia it was interesting to compare the styles of how these events are run in the two countries. We arrived at the competition during the warm-up time for the 10am to 12 noon session, which was the second session of the day. When the warm-up was over some music played briefly then competiton commenced without any marching or fanfare. The boys were competing on vault, trampoline and parallel bars. Later there was a rotation and they went to high bar (which wasn't very high) and a modified pommel horse in the shape of a mushroom. We didn't see any floor exericses although some boys were mucking around in that area. We wandered around and took some photos. Each apparatus was judged by 4 judges who sat around a small table with paper and pencils. Within one minute of each competitor finishing their routine their score was displayed by one judge who held up a spiral board with flip numbers. We noticed that some of the judges were probably young enough to be gymnasts themselves. One poor boy scored only 2 on the pommel horse because he fell off within seconds of starting. No worries here about denting anyone's spirits or discouraging anyone from participating in gymnastics by giving them a low score. (In Australia young gymnastics are given team rather than individual scores in order to emphasize the 'fun' aspect of gymnastics rather than the competitive aspect.) Jade told me a couple of the boys tried to talk to her in Chinese but she didn't understand them. They were probably wondering why she was at a boys' competition when the girls were competing in the afternoon!

During the morning we met an older man who was introduced to us as Mr. Wang. Mr. Wang had been Mr. Tian's (Tim's coach) coach. So with Mr. Wang, Mr. Tian in Australia, Tim and then Jade we counted 4 generations of gymnasts, with the knowledge and skills being passed down from one to the next. What an amazing 'family tree'!

Mr. Tian (brother of Tim Lees' coach), Mr. Wang and Jade

We stayed at the gymnastics until about 11:30 then Mr. Tian gave us a lift to Hou Hai Lake Park, which was very near the gymnastics hall, where we were going to meet friends Cherrie and Ed Turner and their children who live in Beijing. Cherrie had invited us to come ice chair skating on the lake. Once again, we had no idea what to expect and were amazed on arrival to see people sitting on metal school chairs with runners pushing themselves on the lake. We met up with Cherrie and Ed and hired our chairs. The poles which we used to propel ourselves are made from screwdrivers welded to pointed metal bars to make them longer. The whole thing is quite jury-rigged. Ice chair skating is a Beijing tradition and we thoroughly enjoyed it! What a wonderful memory to take home from our trip. The kids, of course, are hoping to go back again or to have another chance to ice skate.

Jarrah and Jade chair skating

After having a good time chair skating we went to lunch then walked through the nearby streets past the Drum Tower and through many hutongs (narrow lanes) such as the one below back to Cherrie and Ed's house.

So today was very much a non-touristy day. Our guide, Cecelia, has been quite confused by our large amount of free time on our own. She didn't seem to be very familiar with people who like to do their own thing. I guess she mainly guides tour groups where just about every minute is scheduled. Our adoption trip was pretty much like that and we felt that we didn't get much of the 'real' experience of China then. But, of course, our priorities were different at that time. Now, with our workable grasp of Chinese, we are venturing out and away from purely touristy experiences. Our hostel is a backpackers place and the kids absolutely love it. I can see them hitting the backpackers trail when they are older. Last night we met three expat Aussies who are teaching English here. One is single and the other two are retirement age--ie neither have children to worry about. I would love to come and teach English in China. I've been an ESL teacher for 20 years or so and have taught for 2 years in Thailand. I think I'd be in my element here. Cherrie told me that I could make $US75,000 teaching in an international school. It all sounds enticing but there are probably too many obstacles in the way of it ever happening--or at least happening in the next 10 or so years. Still who knows?